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Gustav MAHLER
Symphony No.10 in F sharp minor
(Performing version by Deryck Cooke)

Radio-Symphonie-Orchester, Berlin
Conducted by Riccardo Chailly
Decca 466 955-2 [78.45]
Crotchet
 £12.50  Amazon UK   £14.99 Amazon USA $15.49

This 1986 Berlin recording of the Deryck Cooke version of Mahler's Tenth was made at the outset of Chailly's international career and now re-appears on a single disc which must mean Chailly will not re-record it to go with his continuing Mahler cycle with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. The Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra need fear no comparison with their more famous Dutch colleagues, however. They give Chailly playing of authority, refinement and security. Their strings don't have the last ounce of expressive power that their Berlin Philharmonic colleagues have for Simon Rattle but they are more closely recorded and that pays its own dividends. In fact I think in terms of recorded sound this is the finest Mahler Tenth currently before us. There is richness married to detail in realistic perspective, never more so than in the first movement where Chailly's intense, polished interpretation sounds glorious in the full-out passages but suitably restrained in the more intimate ones. The woodwinds' contributions, both solo and ensemble, are perhaps too cultured to tell in the poisonous utterances of Mahler's late sound palette, however. It's a close-run thing and only becomes an issue if you compare this with Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic on EMI or Sanderling and the Berlin Symphony on Berlin Classics to name but two. (Is there something about Berlin and Mahler's Tenth, I wonder?) Chailly's delivery of the frightening outburst at the emotional core of the movement carries all the power you could want, as it also does at its reappearance in the last movement where it's delivered exactly as Deryck Cooke demands without the extra percussion Rattle and Sanderling see fit to add.

The difficult rhythmic "gait" of the second movement is negotiated well by Chailly and his orchestra but without the last ounce of latent conflict beneath what is, on the surface at least, one of Mahler's more joyous Scherzos. As always in Mahler Chailly's impressive veneer has its downside though there will be many people who find his approach thoroughly persuasive. Again the Decca recording is exemplary here in making every line beautifully clear, not least in the closing pages of the movement.

I did think the short, crucially important, "Purgatorio" third movement sags a little under Chailly and could do with a quicker tempo. Here it's not really the insidious little personal "Inferno" that Mahler surely meant. However, Chailly and the orchestra negotiate the tough challenges of the fourth movement superbly. They don't show quite the "do or die" impetuosity you find in Rattle's recent "live" Berlin Philharmonic recording, testing and probing this music and its twentieth century implications, most especially the conflict that can be obtained by pitching demonic scherzo against happy waltz which Rattle exploits to the full. Neither does Chailly seem to be as aware, as I think he should be, of the quote earlier in the movement from the first movement of "Das Lied Von Der Erde". Indicative, perhaps, of his relative inexperience in 1986? But the view of the movement is valid in being more classically framed and poised than some others and I enjoyed it a lot. Though I think the descent into the darkness at the close really needs to be more crepuscular than this. This latter point means that the opening of the last movement doesn't plumb the depths like Rattle or Sanderling or Wyn Morris in his long-deleted Phillips recording. However, Chailly redeems himself in a stunning realisation of the passage between the lovely flute solo and the return of the bass drum thwacks that are delivered with just the right amount of weight but without battering us into submission. Nobility is maintained to the end rounding off this fine recording in a very satisfying calm.

In terms of recorded sound this is the best Mahler/Cooke Tenth currently available. As an interpretation it is imbued with polish, nobility and integrity. Rattle and Sanderling penetrate deeper but Chailly has much to admire.

Reviewer

Tony Duggan

Performance:

Sound:

See also Tony Duggan's comparative review of Mahler recordings



Reviewer

Tony Duggan

Performance:

Sound:


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